Marketwire Sues PR Newswire for $25 Million

Canada’s Marketwire has filed a $25 million lawsuit against PR Newswire, accusing its competitor of causing “irreparable harm,” according to Reuters. The lawsuit alleges that PR Newswire hired Marketwire staffers and then extracted trade secrets and other confidential information from them. The lawsuit was filed in New York.

Among the co-defendents in the case are Shoeb Ansari who worked for Marketwire until June 2010 and now serves as PR Newswire’s chief technology officer and three former staffers who only resigned in recent weeks.

In a statement emailed to PRNewser, PR Newswire writes:

PR Newswire has every legal right to hire these employees and it has no interest in any trade secrets Marketwire may have.

Marketwire is turning to the courts in an attempt to prevent fair competition between the companies. We are confident that the court will agree this case has no merit.

We has also been in touch with Marketwire and will update this post with its statement if and when we hear back.